tonight. fair, balanced, and unafraid. >> shepard: this is a special edition of "the fox report," with a single sponsor and limited commercial interruption. tonight, as we approach 9/11, we will go to ground zero where our cameras have been for months. to show you the remarkable project rising where the world trade center once stood. plus, the economy, and new ideas to give businesses a break. i'm shepard smith. the news starts now. >> shepard: president obama with a new plan to boost the economy by helping companies cut costs. but republicans say the white house is missing the big picture. tonight, key points of the plan and the growing debate over whether this is good business.

protesters versus police. tonight, a dramatic confrontation in the streets. in an area that seen this sort of violence before. plus, the heisman trophy is the most prestigious individual award any college football player can get. now word that this recipient is going to have to give it back. tonight, reggie bush at the center of an unprecedented event in sports history. but first from fox this tuesday night, we're learning new details of the president's latest proposal to help jump start our economy. the white house now reports tomorrow president obama will call for new tax breaks. tax breaks that let businesses write off all of their capital investments through next year. 100% of those investments. that would let companies have more money on hand, which would help them buy more equipment and hire more workers. theoretically boosting the whole economy, and the white house saying this isn't just a move to shore up support before the

november congressional elections. >> the president isn't here to solve the nations problems on a political calendar. he is here to solve the nation's problems as they exist. that's what he is elected to do. that's what he will focus his time on doing. >> shepard: the president's recent economic proposals also include a 50 billion-dollar plan to repair our roads, railways, airports, and runways. but before anything actually gets going, the president will need the green light from the congress. and that could be rough. the house minority leader john boehner released a quote that reads: >> shepard: wendell goler with the news live tonight at the white house. wendell, the polls show that people are unhappy with the white house policies and in congress it looks like the president could have a very rough fight ahead.

>> shep, white house press secretary robert gibbs says everyone here knows that washington has entered a political season and that it will be difficult to get congress to agree on anything. now, republicans think this series of proposals the president is unveiling this week are designed really to look good on the campaign trail. but robert gibbs denies it. >> this is about long-term economic growth. this isn't about the next 60 days or the next 90 days. this is about how do we get our economy fully back on track. how do we get the millions that want to work back to work? >> still, it will be hard to get lawmakers' attention. they won't be in town much over the next couple of months. most of that time they will be focused on re-election, shepard. >> shepard: wendell, the white house is not calling this a second stimulus package but clearly it is a package of cuts designed to stimulate. i mean, it is what it is. >> they say it's aimed at building long-term economic

growth, jobs over the long-term and, frankly, after a year in which the $800 billion the congress spent last year failed to produce jobs as fast enough and keep the unemployment rate as low as the white house has promised. the term stimulus has lost much of its appeal, shepard. >> shepard: clearly. politics aside, what's the reaction to these proposals? >> ironically, house republican leader john boehner told the "wall street journal" that tax cut proposals aren't necessarily bad. republicans think that last year's stimulus bill should have contained more tax cuts and less government spending. but some economists, like the university of maryland's peter morenci don't think these proposals would cut the proposals would cut the it? >> won't have appreciable effect on unemployment. at the end of the day businesses will not hire unless they have more customers, more sales. they are simply going to not make any more product than they can sell. >> the white house says short-term job creation is not the goal. it's laying a foundation for

long-term economic growth. shepard? >> shepard: wendell goler live at the white house tonight. wendell, thank you. there is another new plan that goes into effect today. this one is designed to help homeowners who owe more on their mortgages than their homes are now worth. remember, that housing market is really where the financial crisis began. and beginning today, the federal housing administration will allow lenders to offer people refinance loans that are backed by the government. but, first, the lender would have to forgive at least 10% of the original mortgage. the government estimates this plan could help 500,000 to a million and a half homeowners. but the analysts have said that's an optimistic estimate. and this program might actually help far fewer people. a fox news wildfire alert. and tonight we are getting a ground level look at parts of a big fire burning on the outskirts of bolder colorado, take a look at this. a local news crew got behind the fire lines earlier today and took this video on their way through the area.

weave can't tell from this video how many homes have burned. officials in charge of this situation say the number could already be more than 60 homes burned. the fire is now going west of boulder, right now officials say about 3,000 people are being kept away from their homes in the evacuation area as more crews and equipment are headed in. >> we have tremendous amount of federal resources on order. and in route. we have literally exhausted our local resources. >> shepard: in other words, dealing with the fire as it exploded yesterday took every man and every woman available in the area. alicia acuna is live at the fire command center that's set up in boulder. alicia, we are just getting details about how many homes have been torn up by this thick. >> that's right, shepard. fire investigators say that they were able to go through half of the burned out area today and counted 63 structures lost so far. residents want to go back in but they can't because it's just simply too dangerous. containment is at zero percent. after multiple weather delays

today they were able to get air support up to help fight this blaze. those are the tankers that carry the slur. they have helicopters to begin a containment line. more resources on the way from wyoming to new mexico. today when the governor signed a state of emergency, he threw $5 million at the effort. shep? >> shepard: alicia, we are hearing more evacuations could be on the way. >> yes. boulder county sheriff said that's definitely a possibility because the fire is still on the move. on that ridge right behind me here. residents attended the multiple news conferences today and some people were shouting questions at authorities, expressing their frustrations over what they sees a a lack of progress and lack of clear communication. but governor bill ritter came out and told folks, look, the number one priority is public safety. and he urged residents to cooperate. >> for our purposes, the most important thing is to allow the firefighters to do their business and that can only happen if they are not having to argue with people about

reevacuating or evacuating from their property. >> now, this becomes a 24-hour fight today because they have additional resources and so, shepard, firefighters will be out there on the line throughout the night. shep? >> shepard: alicia acuna at the command center. back to her as news warrants. another guantanamo bay detainees has apparently gone back to terrorism. fox news has confirmed now that yemeni forces arrested him along with a dozen others suspected al qaeda members. catherine herridge is live in the d.c. newsroom tonight. catherine, what do we know about this man? >> shep, the suspect uses various ail yes, sirs but he is identified as to fox as al beer. he was detainee number 188. he was one of a large group which arrived early at guantanamo where we believe the picture on the right in orange jumpsuit. now he is not the first saudi and gitmo grad to join al qaeda in yemen.

>> al qaeda back to its an says teller homeland yemen. the saudis are part of that. the saudi gitmo grads are part of that. >> he tells fox he is facing conspiracy charges aiding and abetting terrorism. >> shepard: will the feds prosecute him. >> no, it will be yemenis. they are saying to me tonight they plan to prosecute him. some analysts question whether it will be done in a meaningful way. the track record in yemen is a little mixed and the u.s. case 17 sailors killed by a suicide bomber. a key planner was prosecuted but ultimately only served two years of a life sentence. right now anwar al-awlaki the american cleric is hiding in yemen and he is the first american on the cia's kill or capture list, shep. >> shepard: this is note worthy in part because some of the detainees at gitmo have from yemen. >> half of the detainees at gitmo are from yemen. you are correct, shep. until the yemeni problem is

solved, there will be no way to physically close guantanamo and the detention camps as president obama has promised. >> shepard: thanks. a former soldier who took three hostage at army hospital threatened to kill the president and form everywhere president clinton as well. that's the word from prosecutors. the gunman demanded mental health when he stormed the hospital at fort steward in georgia yesterday. he gave up four hours later without hurting anyone according to authorities. the commander says the soldier's mental problems are related to his service in the military. there is no word on whether he had within to iraq or afghanistan. investigators say they searched his home and found more than a dozen weapons, including what they describe as high-powered rifles with scopes. plus, books and dvds about secret service policy. israeli sniper techniques. osama bin laden, and the oklahoma city bomber, tim mcveigh. outrage in the streets.

protesters calling police officers assassins after a deadly shooting. but cops say the victim was threatening them. this isn't in some far off land but right here at home. we'll report. you decide. plus, our brand new series the rise of freedom. a look at the building of the world trade center site. today, two very special pieces of the project arrived at ground zero. our cameras have been there for months. we'll hear from the people working to make the project a reality. and it's never happened before. but there is word one major football star may have to give his heisman trophy back. so what did reggie bush do, exactly? details coming up from the journalists of fox news on a special edition of the fox report tonight with limited commercial interruption. we're back in just 60 seconds.

>> shepard: the chief of police

in los angeles is now trying to diffuse tensions after a violent protest over a deadly police shooting. local reports indicate about 300 people showed up at the city's ram part neighborhood yesterday. video showed some of them there seeming to lose restraint with each other. later in the night, police say a handful of protesters threw bottles and rocks at officers as they tried to clear the crowd off the streets. the police department reports three slight injuries to officers and several arrests. this all happened near mcarthur park in los angeles. that's significant because of what happened there in 2007. when police officers broke up an immigration rally, beating demonstrators and reporters. the incident eventually cost the city $13 million in lawsuits. trace gallagher in our los angeles news hub tonight. start with the shooting that led

to the protest. what more can you tell us about that? >> well, shep, it involved a 37-year-old father of three named man well -- guatemalan immigrant. we know that around noon that afternoon the police got a call they were on bicycle patrol that a man was actually holding a knife and threatening people as they walked by. well, police say when they arrived, they told the man to drop the knife. now witnesses say police told the man in english to drop the knife and that he only spoke spanish. but today the l.a.p.d. said no, the warning was both in english and in spanish and even after that warning, the man continued to threaten police and another woman. listen. >> he had already been threatening people with the knife, including a pregnant woman. and he was there with -- and was there with a 4-year-old child. one witness who saw that leaf her alone the suspect tried to turn around slash that person. >> l.a. police chief came out today defending his police

officers saying he believes they were acting in self-defense. we should note the witnesses on scene have told police they believe the man who was carrying the knife had also been drinking before the incident, shep. >> shepard: trace, any word from police about whether they expect more of these protests or anything like that in this neighborhood? >> well, they are certainly expecting them, shep, because they have beefed up police presence there tonight in case something does happen. you have to keep in mind this is a part of los angeles that has a great number of hispanic immigrants in that area. many believe in that area that police did not need to use lethal force against that man with a knife. last night, the protests, you see, they began peaceful. and then police came down and they said to break it up. and some did go home. but many others began harassing police, throwing rocks and bottles at them. and as you said, injured three police officers. four others in the crowd were arrested. tensions in that neighborhood have recently been very high.

because, in recent weeks, police have been cracking down on the street vendors. the illegal street vendors not allowing them to sell their wears. now you add this incident in the mix, and tonight police near mcarthur park on high alert, shep. >> shepard: trace gallagher -- the victim of an acid attack is going home and says she will not let the incident ruin her life. local radio station is reporting 28-year-old bethany storo has left the hospital where she was being treated to acid burns to her face. police say somebody threw the toxic substance at her last month. investigators say they are still looking for the attacker but that they do not think storo knew the woman who threw the acid. not so in arizona where police are now investigating a very similar crime. cops say a woman threw a cup of acid at this woman dairy valardi. this time police say the victim was not chosen at random at all.

here is what police detective michael melendez told me on "studio b." >> this time we believe the attacker knew the victim. the attacker was waiting for the victim to arrive at home and park at her assigned parking spot and immediately attacked the victim when we exited her vehicle. really don't know what the motive behind it is. that's what we are trying to find out if it please at this point in time. obviously someone who wanted to disfigure the victim. >> shepard: she is recovering from second degree burns and is either out of the hospital already or will be shortly. the mesa police department released this afternoon this composite sketch of the woman home they say -- whom they say attacked valarda. mexican city of monterrey, a little more than 100 miles south of laredo, texas. officials say that the explosion killed an engineer working at the site and injured ten others workers a spokesman who runs

refinery says a leak in the piece of equipment caused the explosion. a nationwide strike across france as members of parliament debate whether to raise the official age of retirement. that's our top story as we go around the world in 80 seconds. >> shepard: france. hundreds of thousands of people demonstrating in cities across the country. the protesters say they are upset over the government's plan to up the government's retirement age to 62 right now it's 60 among the lowest in all of europe. the strikes hit trains, airports, schools, hospitals, post offices. france's prime minister says other european nations are considering an even higher increase in the age of retirement. australia. rising floodwaters threatening hundreds of homes in victoria. and a nearby river is still rising. but one victorian official says the benefits of all the rain to the drought-plagued region's farms far outweighs the damage.

indonesia. a big eruption at mount sinabung sending a cloud of black ash into the air. it's the volcano's most powerful eruption after it started last week after four centuries of dormancy. the ash dusting villages up to 15 miles away. portugal, police seizing 27 fake works of art outside lisbon. it's reportedly the largest haul of counterfeit artwork ever in the country. pablo picasso. matice and mark shagral. that's a wrap on a fox trip around the world in 80 seconds. >> shepard: officials say a bomber attack ad police compound in pakistan, killed himself and 20 other people. we're told most of the victims were women and children. more than 90 others said to be injured in this deadly ambush. local police say the bombers set off a car filled with explosives just as people were breaking their fast for the muslim holy

month of ramadan. the blast comes just hours after the taliban threatened more suicide attacks on government and security forces. pakistan's prime minister calls it a heinous crime against innocent civilians. more tough talk from iran as fox report's tonight. yesterday, the u.n.'s atomic energy agency complained about tehran kicking out two of its inspectors. but iran's nuclear chief claims that it has the right to do that. and analysts say technically he is right. but they argue iran has abused that privilege by rejecting 40 inspectors over the past four years. today on "studio b," one expert who has met with the iranian president not once but twice told me there is hope of keeping the islamic republic from building nukes. >> i think the u.s. intelligence community, its core conclusion is that iran has not yet made a decision to build a bomb. it wants to have the capability. it wants to be able to pull that trigger later, so to speak. but it hasn't made that decision. and as long as they haven't made

that decision, there is still some possibility here that we can work things out. >> shepard: but he says the longer iran stays away from the bargaining table, the closerrer it gets to having the bomb. and the u.n.'s atomic watchdog reports we may have new reason to worry. james rosen is live tonight across from the capital. james? >> shep, this latest report by the international atomic energy agency pointedly calls attention to evidence that iran has secretly been working on a nuclear war head since 2004. that conclusion stood? sharp contrast with the official judgment of the u.s. intelligence community issued just three years ago that iran had ceased such work in 2004. indeed, on a host of issues, the new iaea chief y scene on screen right offered -- one section of the new report described iran's response to iaea questions about when exactly the regime started to build its recently disclosed enrichment facility at the holy city of kwame.

this was selected for the construction of the fuel enrichment plant in the second half of 2007, the iranians wrote in a letter to the iaea. the iaea informed general shot back that it had received extensive information from a number of sources alleging the design work on that facility had started in 2006. responding to the report today, state department spokesman p.j. crowley held out the usual options for the iranians. >> whether they will make the right decision, remains to be scene. but, you know, this supports, you know, our policies and the actions over the past year to put additional pressure on iran, even while we remain open to engagement to answer the questions of the report once again raises. >> p.j. crowley's pose secretary of state clinton tomorrow billing what aides are billing as a major speech she will cite recent sanctions against iran as

evidence of obama that's global leadership in the 21st century. >> shepard: new talk of the white house chawm rahm emanuel running for the mayor of chicago it all got lined up today. rahm emanuel once told fox news that that's the job he really wants. and it's about to be available. richard daily is about to pass his father as chicago's longest serving mayor and today he announced he will not run for an unprecedented seventh term. >> simply put, it's time. it's time for me. it's time for chicago to move on. >> shepard: well as for whether rahm emanuel plans to run, the senior white house advisor david axelrod says emanuel has a lot on his plate as chief of staff and that's what he is focused on right now. in other words, he didn't answer. computer giant hewlett packard suing its former ceo hike herd a day after its rival company oracle hired him as president.

herd left harold perrineau in the wake of a south carolinaial harassment investigation into his relationship into a party planner and one time fisher. heard hurd settled out of court. a friend of hurd's blasts h.p.'s decision to the door calling it the worst personnel decision since the idiots on the apple board fired steve jobs many years ago. h. p.'s lawt against mr. hurd says he could use company secrets to help oracle hurt h.p. former usc football star and current new orleans saint reggie bush could become the first player in the 75 year history of the heisman trophy to lose that award. yahoo sports reporting that trust is expected to strip the running back of the top award why the end of the month. the trust is investigating whether reggie bush took gifts. if so, was that a violation of

ncaa rules. actively ruled reggie bush was ineligible for parts of the 2004 season when he led the trojans to a national title and the 2005 season when he won the heisman. the chief fox report's correspondent jonathan hunt is here with us. what are the heisman people saying about. this we got a letter from the heisman trophy trust and he essentially denied that any decision has been made telling us and i'm going to quote here. the status of the usc bush matter remains unchanged. any reports to the contrary are inaccurate. he also referred us to a july statement which said, and i'm quoting again, the trust will be considering the issues raised in the usc reggie bush matter and after reaching a decision will publish it. but due to the complex issues involved and the trust's desire to reach an appropriate decision, no definitive timetable has been established. no, reggie bush may be losing the heisman. he may be keeping it most experts, shep, think we will know in the next couple of days

for sure. >> shepard: improper gifts, right? along the course of his stay at usc? >> these are the allegations that reggie bush and his families lavish gifts from two sports marketers. gifts include hotel stays, limo trips a new suit when reggie smith picked up the heisman trophy. they also apparently included a rent-free home for his family. but one "sports illustrated" expert i spoke to today said that if they are going to strip reggie of the heisman trophy for receiving those kind of difficulties, they open up a real can of worms. listen. >> i don't think that this offense is necessarily grounds for strange heisman. certainly setting a precedent for taking away future heismans where there are people well before reggie bush that probably could have deserved to have their heismans taken away. >> pretty much anybody you speak to in sports would say that the giving of these kind of dubious

gifts is of the very least widespread in college sports, shep. >> shepard: 2005. vince young was the runner-up that year, right? does that mean he, in theory? i mean we are getting ahead of ourselves. we get it? >> if reggie bush was stripped of it, vince young could get it he was the runner-up but very distant runner-up in 2005. he did lead the longhorns to victory in the bcs championship game that year but vince young himself has said he does not want it. he does not want to get a heisman that way. and, again, most people in sports believe that what would happen is that they would simply, in the words of the heisman trophy trust vacate the trophy for that year. in other words, shep, no one would get it. >> shepard: thank you, sir. sometimes it's good to be a quitter, for instance, when it comes to smoking. but it turns out a lot of folks are still lighting up these days despite all the campaigns to ask them to stop. coming up. how many americans are still smoking and what health officials say is actually

responsible for that. plus, how preparing for a storm led to a different sort of disaster for some boat owners. and impressive progress at ground zero. that's coming up on this special edition of the fox report with limited commercial interruption. we'll go to the site of the world trade center for a look at the rebuilding effort there. the astounding work that's being done by thousands of people. and we'll hear from some of them who are keeping a close eye on the progress. >> they never recovered his remains is one of the hardest things once they finish the memorial i will feel more of a closees in i guess you could say to dad. to my father.

steady, that's the headline from the centers for disease control and prevention in its new report on smoking. the agency says about 21 a% of adults were smokers in 2009. 20% of teenagers report they smoke. that number is also flat. the cdc reports smoking has stayed pretty much the same really since 2004. after dropping dramatically since the 1960's bit of mystery's on google's home page today putter your mouse at the top and circles go all crazy. google doodles special version of the google logo usually reserved for holidays and anniversaries. clicking the thing normally provides some sort of explanation but today only speculation. this tweet from the company boisterous doodle today. maybe it's excited about the week ahead.

>> shepard: i'm shepard smith. this is the fox report. it's the bottom of the hour. time for the top of the news. it's been more than a full week since the u.s. combat mission in iraq officially ended. in practical terms, just because the pentagon doesn't use the word combat does not mean combat isn't happening. jennifer griffin on the top story at the bottom of the hour live at her post at the pentagon again tonight with a closer look at what's being said and what is actually happening. jennifer, we were told combat operations in iraq were over. >> if you listened to president obama last tuesday you would have thought so. take a listen. >> tonight i'm announcing that the american combat mission in iraq has ended. operation iraqi freedom is over and the iraqi people now have lead responsibility for the security of their country. >> but, tonight, two u.s. soldiers were killed in northern iraq by an iraqi wearing an iraqi army uniform so those are the first deaths since the president announced that combat

operations had ended. >> shepard: and on sunday, jennifer, they came to the rescue of an iraqi forces in baghdad. >> that's right. in fact, six suicide bombers had breached a headquarters, army headquarters and we're told that two u.s. soldiers had to help them fight their way out. they fired they suicide bombers. they have been called to combat two separate incidents. in fact, you will remember, shep, that on august 1st, the media was standing by at the kuwait border and reported that the last combat brigades were out. we were told by the pentagon call them advice and assist brigades. still 50,000 troops left in iraq. >> shepard: there is a lot more than advise and assist going on here. are we just talking semantics? >> it looks that way. the timing, you remember president obama promised to be out of iraq. it was a campaign promise. he promised to be out in 16 months. they chosen august 31st deadline it was somewhat

arbitrary but it does fall two months ahead of the midterm elections. ask any u.s. soldier who is serving in iraq, they will give you a different story. this is what our baghdad team heard from u.s. soldiers serving when they went to see them in northern kirkuk earlier this week. >> we actually have been trained for combat brigade the entire year. our entire mission even through the i.p.s is to help them conduct their operations. including combat. >> they use the word come bass, not advise and assist, shep. >> shepard: yelp, i noticed. jennifer griffin at the pentagon tonight. hundreds of priceless ancient art afacts are now back in iraq more than seven years after looters stole the items at the onset of the u.s. invasion. the relics on display at the ministry of foreign affairs. some of the pieces date back 4400 years you will remember back in 2003 looters cleaned out the museum. jonathan hunt was on scene then

when the u.s. military launched the operation to try to recover the art facts. the quality of the video is a kind of so-so but you will get the idea. >> this is the shelter in which some of the art facts may be located. we just arrived with the investigation team. they are setting up a secure perimeter. then they are going to take a closer look. a lomb man brought keys and we went. in security at the forefront of everyone's mind. we had been told by informants that boxes from the museum ended up here. >> shepard: not all of the items now on display are answer ancient. among the new pieces chrome ak 47 with chrome plated hand grip featuring a picture of saddam hussein. officials at nasa today discussing their efforts to help these chilean miners trapped a half mile under ground. it's already been a month. and officials say crews might not be able to get to them until december. space agency sent a drew give

advice on isolation in confined area. similar to what astronauts experience in space, they tell us. recommendations include a strict eating and sleeping schedule. regular exercise regimen and daily assigned tasks a.c. and exact with loved ones, of course, one nasa expert says the miners themselves are also key to a successful rest rest could you. >> they had organized into groups. they had established a hierarchy among them. >> shepard: a fox weather alert now. tropical storm hermine dumping heavy rain and causing

widespread power outages in south texas. flash flood advisories in effect for parts of that state as the system moves inland today. we're told some local communities passed out sandbags and closed schools as a precaution. remnants of the storm now moving toward the southern plains. ned of our fox station reporting live tonight. the water there already starting to go down, right? >> as a matter of fact, shep, can i actually show you where the water is going at this point. it's draining into our streams and our bayous which serve as our flood control system here in southeast, texas. it's carrying impressive volume of water as you can see. nowhere knee capacity. earlier this morning, that water was actually coming down in buckets. it was stalling our streets and flooding our feeder roads, some of them anyway. i will tell you the truth, we need that rain here in southeast texas. here in houston, austin, august was actually houston's hottest month ever on record.

so, you know, the rain, it can be a pain but we'll take it. >> shepard: two bad it's running off like that. there was a concern about tornadoes, has that passed? >> we are still under a tornado watch here in the houston area from :00 tonight. from your coverage of these tropical systems. you know that sort of goes with the territory. we had a few tornado warnings earlier in the day. no damage reported associated with those. but as hermine moves up to the north, she is going to become a headache for places like north texas and oklahoma. hopefully she will get out of our hair down here in houston. >> shepard: we can hope. fox 26 for houston and outlying areas. good to see you. thank you. a fast-moving fire destroying several fishing boats and doing a whole lot of damage. the boats tied closely together at a port in south korea. reportedly in anticipation of a typhoon that never hit. look at this. see boats engulfed in flames. apparently one of them caught fire and spread boat to boat to

boat. we're told it took 300 people and 16 fire vehicles to get fund control. and the damage, they tell us, could top $5 million. a teenager stranded in the middle averaging river and the whole thing caught on video. happened in california near bakersfield. officials say the 19-year-old was playing in the river when he got caught in the powerful current. and ended up clinging to a rock to keep from getting swept right away. rescuers on the ground were not able to reach him. crews decided to air lift him to safety and look at this. we're told there was a dangerous stretch of white water rapids just a short distance downstream from where that teen was stuck. a fire at a west virginia racetrack has killed 29 horses, according to a local fire chief. this is cell phone video of the flames. they destroyed, we're told, four stables at charlestown, races in the eastern part of the state. we're also told a couple of the captured this video helped authorities save more than 20 horses. you can hear the man here warning people to get out of there.

>> hey, this roof is on fire. you people need to move. the roof is on fire. >> shepard: area newspaper reports investigators are still looking into the possibility that an arsonist is to blame. a pair of 70-foot columns from the world trade center returned to that site today. the columns came from the wreckage of the north tower. and for the last few years, they have rested at a hanger at jfk international airport in new york. today, teams brought those 50-ton columns back to ground zero where they are set to stand sentinel at the entrance to the museum. >> i said there are two priorities that we have. number one is to build something that will give the families a place to remember their loved ones but for all the rest of us, freedom-loving people not just new yorkers, not just americans, but people around the world tell the message to our children and grandchildren freedom is fragile and we have to constantly fight for it.

>> shepard: and freedom is fragile. with that the beginning of something special here on fox news channel. and on fox report. a series of reports we're calling the rise to freedom. this week, we're all reminded again about what happened on 9/11 when a handful of radical islamic terrorists attacked this nation. even nine years later, it seems all of us have stories about where we were. how we found out. what it meant to us. those stories are all the more visceral from people who had personal connections to the trade center itself. men and women who lost loved ones or coworkers or friends. we will hear from some of those people in just a moment. after a long delay the new buildings are now going up and for the past several months, fox news has had special access to that site. our rise of freedom series begins tonight. documenting each step of the construction until the towers are fully built. the four new towers are to reshape the new york skyline and one of them will eventually be the tallest building in all of america. and those buildings will stand

near the memorial plaza with two water falls that mark the exact footprints of where the twin towers once stood. as we showed you last month, teams have started planting the first trees there part of an effort to bring life back to the site. and it is against that back drop that we bring you chapter 1, the story of the men and women who are retaking the sky floor by floor in this rise of freedom. ♪ ♪ >> their height and their prominence on the new york city landscape such tall amazing

buildings amazing imprint on the skyline. >> shepard: this window watcher in october of 2000. >> can i see upstate new york from here. look, connecticut. let's go up. >> he loved the view. >> shepard: vincent is the youngest of rocco's three children. >> i hope can i retire in two or three years and stay home. i'm very happy because it's time. 69 years old, it's time to stay home and see the grandchildren. >> when my father became a grandfather it was a huge, huge joy. >> another plane just flew into the second tower. >> explosion, we looked up. >> god help those and the victims and their families. >> yin nighted airlines plane with 45 people total about.

>> two miles from the pentagon, you can see the smoke billowing up from the building. >> this has to be deliberate, folks. some of the key suspects come to mind osama bin laden, i called my mom she said daddy is okay. i got off the phone with daddy he is on the 105th floor he is there with 2 or 300 people. we are all in god's hands, he said. life took a long time to -- how can i explain it? >> shepard: this is the street level, obviously, but there is much more below. >> right, there is much more below the seven stories between basically where we are standing and where we are going to be going to bedrock below the

towers. >> shepard: joe daniels is the president and ceo of the national september 11 memorial and museum. the world trade center site is 16 acres. the museum and memorial will cover eight acres and is scheduled to open on september the 11th 2011. images of the memorial draw the eye to water falls that mark the twin towers' original footprint. >> shepard: how do you see this experience for people who come here? >> i think that this eight acre memorial plaza is meant to be and will be a really separate space within this city. you are going to come here, you are going to approach the memorial pool. you are going to have these massive water falls and both the sound of the falling water, which is a huge 52,000 gallons of water per minute to have that sound, to have the 400 trees surround you, to have the names of the victims in front of you, it's going to feel like a very separate, special place. >> shepard: damages was original lay lawyer for the memorial museum. but in 2006 he was asked to take the reigns.

the controversy surrounding what is built here and how is no secret. >> you called it a battlefield -- this at times the struggle to deal with all the entities and competing forces must have felt like a real battle. >> yeah, it did and it still does in a way. i mean, there are so many stakeholders that have legitimate things to stay about this site. of course the family members absolutely. something like 40% of all the family members, 1100 families if never got remains back to burry. that's what this site is. >> they never recovered his remains. it's one of the hardest things. once they finished the memorial i will feel more of a closeness, i guess you could say, to dad. to my father. >> one of the women i interviewed worked for the port authority in the world trade center, had her walkie-talkie.

she talked to me at the beginning of her interview how she heard rocco on the walkie-talkie. and she couldn't get his name out without crying. >> come over the southeast. >> when i see that walkie-talkie, i think of rocco. >> shepard: amy weinstein records oral histories and helps gather the museum's physical art facts. >> we hope to record oral histories with a family member or friend of everyone who was killed. when we

be here in order to tell what actually happens. >> shepard: this will be a difficult experience for a lot of people. >> absolutely. and things like the jumpers, while we will show them, we are going to basically warn the visitors that if there are certain things they don't want to see, they will be able to avoid some of those horrific images. that's the truth of what happened on that day. >> in 1987, i remember looking up to the twin towers and saying to myself wouldn't it be fantastic some day to own those buildings? >> shepard: new york native larry silverstein company silverstein properties acquired the lease to the world trade center in 2001. >> we closed it six weeks before 9/11. of course, life changed for

everybody. the impact on our lives was nothing short of extraordinary. >> shepard: you knew so many people in that building? >> oh, yes. many. it became obvious to me that this terrorist sought to destroy our way of life. that was an attack on america. and not to rebuild these buildings would be to give the terrorists exactly what they were looking for. >> shepard: the process reef building has been anything but smooth. it is a stark comparison to the pentagon. just one year after flight 77 slammed into its side, killing 184 people, the building was repaired. >> over the last nine years, there are a lot of cooks in this kitchen. >> shepard, it's been a challenge of major proportions. dealing with four governors of the state of new york, soon to be a fifth. five governors of the state of new jersey. each governor has his own agenda. so we have been faced with many challenges here. not the least of which is change of political leadership.

>> shepard: as of you'll, the ground has been broken for every office building planned. one world trade center is being built by the port authority of new york and new jersey. it's on its way up. broadcast antenna will reach 1776 feet. to the east, tower two will stand 1,270 feet. moving south from tower two is tower three. the 71 story building will rise 1140 feet. today, work is being done in the bedrock for the foundations of two and three. but tower four is taking shape and its construction won't stop until its 975 feet tall. there are 2,000 people on the job today. but that number is expected to climb to 10,000. the site will also be home to a 1,000 seat performing arts center and a transit hub

designed to look like a bird taking flight. >> clearly the train is moving down the tracks. the trade center is beginning to rise. also very emotional. >> describe those emotions if you would. >> just a matter of a few years you have these six architectural gems that people look at and say my god, isn't that fantastic. >> we need this pylon outside. >> beam and go out -- >> exactly. >> shepard: megan is a structural engineer for leslie e. robertson associates. it's her job to marry the fantastic visions of a an actor tech with the reality of physics. >> right here we have a tower column. it will rise all the way up to the top of the building. with you k. cece we are quite large rebar here. and see something like this which is a farm that will encase the perimeter of this column. after that the concrete is placed inside. they vibrate the concrete and then they the form. so you see here a finished

column we have done reinforcement inspections of this. they formed it up. they form the formed concrete. they let the concrete set and remove the forms. that's what you will see here. tower four is just going to be under 1,000 feet. you have see columns on the perimeter that will run all the way up to the top of the building. >> designed and built to a standard that's totally beyond building code in the united states. >> shepard: just north of the world trade center site is building number seven. the headquarters for silverstein properties. >> shepard: and in here completely different from the last one, certainly wider and a lot more security. >> well, you look at the stairs, they seem to be inordinately wide. >> shepard: they are. >> they are 20% wider than code requires. reason for that is what we learned on 9/11 and that is fire responders coming up the stairs are impeded by people who want to come down the stairs. unlike the twin towers, that we

erected for the original trade center, which were secured and protected by wall board or plaster board on the exterior, what we have here are load bearing walls that are at least two feet thick. each four is impregnated with steel reinforcing bars per floor. it makes the shield walls it makes the core of this building impregnantpregnantable. >> shepard: we see black polls stripes down here. there happens to be another one back over here. these are all for communications for fire and police. >> well, you also have in addition, for example, a sprinkler system. see this red pipe. it's a sprinkler system that is designed to work under any circumstance because it's within the core walls. on 9/11, the planes sheared right through the sprinkler system.

these measures now are incorporated into awful these buildings so built to a totally different standard than has ever existed. >> we can't get back what was lost that day but if we can move forward and rebuild, i'm humbled to be a part of that. >> shepard: you really love, this don't you? >> it's great. i feel it's an honor and it's a privilege to work on this. ♪ >> i'm sure now they are going to do something different window washing of it i would take the job just to enjoy the view that he loved so much. >> shepard: it is a spectacular project. freedom is rising now in ground zero and we vow to chronicle it and report on it every week for years and years until it's 100% finished. coming up later this week on

"the fox report," many young men and women joined the military after the attacks of 9/11 and some paid a heavy price for their bravery. this friday we'll meet some of them as they make their first visits to ground zero. the site of the attacks that inspired them to serve. you can follow the progress of the rebuilding at ground zero and view all of our coverage online at foxnews.com/freedom. you will also find exclusive content there that you won't see on tv as well as behind the scenes looks. you can also speak with the world trade center workers through this web site. send them your questions and your comments. again, that's at foxnews.com,/freedom. as freedom rises in low are manhattan. and what a privilege to report on it. you can put tracking devices in high priced electronics and in cars. so why not on your kids? tracking devices on your kids? really? we'll report. you decide on this special edition of the fox report with clearly limited commercial interruption.

that this may outweigh the benefits. claudia cowan with the news reporting tonight from our newsroom in san francisco. hi, claudia. >> hi, shepard, as the kids head back to class, a growing number of them are being watched closely not only by their teachers at school but by their patience at home. a new wave of family tracking technology is raising privacy concerns but parents say for them it's all about safety. before sending her kids off to school in liver moore, california, megan harvey puts

g.p.s. devices in their backpacks and logs on to life 360 one of a new family monitoring services for a fee let's her virtually follow along as her husband walks 7-year-old patrick and 5-year-old cheyenne to school. >> it's just making sure they got where they were supposed to be and end of story. >> but some critics argue family tracking alps could create a false sense of security. for instance, if the child becomes separated from the device that's supposed to be tracking them. internet privacy experts also caution that if no, ma'am can see a map of her kids' whereabouts, so can someone else. >> before a parent decides to implement this technology they need to ask some really hard questions of the company that's offering it they need to know what kind of information something gathered. how long has it being kept. who has access to it? when is it going to get deleted? >> technology analysts say the advent of g.p.s. family tracking raises new moral and legal issues. services like life 360 content in the future most electronic devices will contain location

features. >> it is really a new world and parents are really adopting this technology at a very quick rate. >> parents, yes but while their kids like patrick and cheyenne like being tracked as teenagers that remains to be seen. shepard. >> shepard: claudia cowan live in san francisco. new push requiring airlines to buy seats for children very young children. right now kids under 2 years old are allowed to sit on mom or dad's lapse or any. the transportation safety board has recommended but the aviation has rejected any change. if you force parents to buy an extra seat for small kids, many families will just choose to drive and avoid paying the extra cost. since statistically driving is more dangerous than flying that can lead to more accidents and deaths. time to update fox top stories now. the white house says president obama will tomorrow announce a new plan to offer businesses tax breaks on capital investments but republicans contend the

white house is still not doing enough to fix the economy. firefighters in colorado are now battling wildfires in the boulder area. the flames burned down this house about one hour ago. and on this day in 1953, at the present miss player maureen conley became the first woman to win all four major grand slam tournaments in the same year. conley was just 18 years old at the time. she started the season with a win at the australian open over julie sampson but in the next three tournament finals she faced the same opponent each time doris hart. that day at the u.s. open right here in new york, the quick footed conley made short work of her competition. in fact, little mo took the title in just 4 minutes. unfortunately a horse riding accident the following year cut her career short at just 19 years old. she never played professionally again. but a teenager took the tennis world by storm 57 years ago today.